Inbound Organization Assessment | Inbound Organization

Are you becoming an Inbound Organization?

Most organizations do not know how to grow by adapting to the new buyer reality. We created a framework that guides you through the steps of the transformation to a build a culture that attracts the best people, enables the best relationships, builds engagement both internally and with prospects and customers, that will grow your business.

Are you ready for the future?

Answer these essential questions about your business as it stands today and see where you need to improve to build your organization into one that is Inbound - one that attracts, builds, and maintains the relationships you need to grow.

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Leadership

Does your company have the right organizational structure to deliver what modern buyers demand?

No, our organizational structure is sometimes an obstacle to connecting to modern buyers. Our company has an ad hoc organizational structure (owner, executive, manager, and individual contributor) that makes it easy for us to function. We have a hierarchical organizational structure to deliver on the plan. Our flattened organizational structure serves us today to deliver on our vision and mission. Yes, our organizational structure allows our people to make decisions closest to the customer, empowering our workforce to fulfill our mission.

Does company leadership believe that buyers have evolved?

In our industry, business hasn't changed signfigantly in the last 30 years Our industry doesn't move as fast as others. We are aware of changes in the buyer process but haven't implemented meaninful changes We understand that the buyer is at the center of the process and we must change to be competitive. We have bought into the inbound revolution and everyone is aligned around these beliefs.

Will your leadership team support fundamental changes to the company to accomodate inbound principles?

No Unlikely Maybe Yes Enthusiastically

Mission & Vision

Does the company currently have domain knowledge or experience that provides a true competitive advantage?

We work in a commodity business with little differentiation from our competitors Our people and processes are our competitive advantage. We have a competitive advantage an easily understood by employees, prospective customers, and competitors We have an easy-to-understand, easy-to-explain competitive advantage that helps us attract more customers. We have a verifiable definable, measurable competitive advantage and three years of data to prove it.

How do you view the future of your organization?

Our buyers don't change. Our products will be our strategic differentiation. We will continue to do inbound marketing. We are starting to anticipate, innovate, and build the future customer experience. We are making the one-on-one personal experience with our customers our strategic priority.

Does your company have a customer-focused mission that employees can rally around?

We are in business solely to make money. We have a mission statement printed in our policy manual. We have created a mission statement that is reflective of our goals. We have a mission statement that reflects our goals, values, and principles. We have a relevant, vibrant mission statement that reflects the values of our culture and explains how we help our clients.

Culture

Does your business culture align with the recent changes in buyer behavior?

No, we do business the way we have always done it. We have made a few changes to react to an online world. We have a plan to implement changes to our culture that reflect the recent changes in buyer behavior. Yes, we understand that culture must reflect our intentions to help our customers first. We have defined an Inbound culture as the most tangible way of helping our employees solve our clients’ problems.

Do you spend time cultivating a corporate culture that inspires employees to do their best work?

We pay our employees, so they should be happy. Creating a consistent corporate culture has not been easy for us. We are known for having a quality corporate culture, and we are a good place to work. Employees feel empowered to do their best work and are active and excited about building on our corporate culture. We are consistently recognized as one of the best places to work in our location/s and vertical market.

Is it hard to identify and recruit good people to work for your company?

It is a struggle to find good people. We would like to improve our ability to attract the right type of employee. We spend a lot of time and effort to recruit good fit employees that understand our mission and values. It is not hard to find good people because of our reputation in the market. We have a strong recruiting funnel and onboarding process, and attract the best candidates.

Inbound Operating System

Do you communicate decisions effectively to everyone in the organization?

If managers get around to telling their direct reports, then we are happy. Leaders make decisions and explain them on a need-to-know basis. We have staff meetings where we share decisions and expect the managers to explain details to their team. Our leaders are visible and available to answer any employee questions and we have regular company-wide events to update everyone. We have formal and informal channels to communicate decisions including shared digital spaces, company-wide meetings, and team gatherings to share information to make sure everyone is informed.

Do you share essential information throughout your organization as a matter of course?

We share information on a need-to-know basis. Critical information is shared with the executive level, and they are responsible for distributing it. We try to share as much information as we can to our employees. Essential information is posted and shared in a central repository and feedback is encouraged. Company information is created and posted in a central repository, reviewed on a regular basis, and feedback and ideas are actively encouraged.

What is the philosophy behind your decision making?

We are top-down. People do what the boss says. We are leader- and manager-driven. Our leaders and managers make decisions against the strategy. We trust our people to make most decisions within reason. Leaders create a culture and provide resource and coaching and our people make the vast majority of decisions.

How do you manage your meetings?

Not sure why we have most of our meetings. Most of our meetings are for reporting. We make some decisions in our meetings. We meet with a purpose and not out of habit. We have short, agenda-driven meetings with the minimum number of people

Do you use NPS to generate feedback?

What is NPS? We use employee surveys but we rarely change anything. We try to survey for feedback, but it's not a priority for us. We use NPS for customer feedback but not internally. We use NPS and eNPS and we regularly evaluate the results and make adjustments based on feedback.

Strategy

Do you have a documented strategy to accomplish your business goals?

Strategy is overrated. Our business strategy is to be a good company. Our business strategy is focused on the effective operation of the company. We have a well-documented strategy that supports our operating process and guides employee behavior. We review our strategies annually and implement a plan that reinforces our culture, values, and employee behavior while solving for the customer.

Do you identify, document, and use a specific ideal buyer persona to focus everyone on a targeted customer?

No, we sell to everyone. We have outlined some demographic data about our customers. We research demographic information about our best customers and use it in to make marketing decisions. We understand where our product works best and where it does not and understand our ideal buyer persona. We understand the buyer persona process and track every step in the buyer journey.

Do you think about and document your strategic omissions, the things you will not be working on?

We never think to exclude options, we just work. We have a list of things to do. We have a strategy that we follow, but we add new stuff all the time. We know a few things we won't focus on. We have a specific list of things we will not do and we stick to it.

Marketing & Sales Process

Do you practice Inbound Marketing to generate leads and customers?

We are an outbound marketing organization and use ads, mailings, and buy lists. We are 75% outbound and starting to practice Inbound. We have adopted the Inbound philosophy and are posting content to help educate prospective customers. We are actively funding more Inbound activities as a foundation for new business development. We have practiced Inbound marketing over the last three years to help our prospects and customers and create a competitive advantage.

Does your sales organization practice Inbound sales to close more deals?

What is Inbound sales? We are aware of Inbound sales but not sure it fits our industry. We have started to teach our sales organization about Inbound ideas. Our sales organization understands how to engage, help, and consult, as opposed to qualify and close. We have trained our sales organization and adopted an Inbound sales process to ensure that our customer sales experience is a competitive advantage.

What is your view of prospecting?

We buy lists and then we spam them. We don't actively engage prospects, we only handle hot leads. We share content and people find us. Some of our salespeople use LinkedIn and share content. We know our target persona and we reach out to them where they are because we know they need our help.

What is your content creation philosophy?

We have a catalog. We updated our site a few years ago. We have a website, sales presentations, and tried blogging once. We blog regularly and have content offers on our site. We create content for our persona based on the buyers journey and our audience loves it.

Technology

Can you easily collect accurate data to ensure you are tracking against plan?

We have limited access to data. We have difficulty getting accurate information because of old data sources and systems. We have a good foundation of measuring the right information. We have all the information we need daily to analyze and evaluate our decisions and effectiveness. Our data analysis is a competitive advantage helping us make good decisions in real time.

What is your thinking about chat / bots / automation / technology?

What? R2D2? No one uses this stuff in our industry. We barely keep up with email. We tried chat and it took too much time. We use technology to engage with our audience when and how they want it.

Do your customer facing employees have a centralized view of the customer?

Our people use Outlook and spreadsheets We use a tool like HubSpot to track contacts from first conversion to sales hand off. Our sales team has a CRM and it includes data from marketing. Our sales team and marketing teams are aligned and work from the same contact record to monitor, manage, and analyze all contact interactions. Our marketing, sales, service, and success teams are aligned and work from the same contact record

Customer Service & Success

Our service department is...

there answering the phone and responding to emails just as fast as they can. helpful, prompt, and thorough in their responses. quick to respond, knowledgable, friendly, gives our customers resources to deal with known potential issues including digital self-help options. proactive and knows what our customers need to do to be successful using our products or service and how to get them to the point of seeing value quickly.

Where do we turn when we want to increase revenue?

Sell more! Run a marketing campaign and sell more. Develop new offerings and reach out to our target persona. We train our sales team to up sell and cross sell by increasing the value we offer our customers while we spend money on new marketing and sales initiatives. We work hard to ensure the success of all of our customers and they are the source of a significant portion of our net new revenue.

Do you proactively help customers achieve success with your product or service?

Not sure what that means. We only provide service when customers ask for it. Our customers see success with our products and we have a service team available if they need help. We proactively help our best customers get more value from our products and services. We monitor our clients’ activity very closely and proactively help all our customers get the most value from our products and services.

Back Office

Do your back-office business processes align with the changes in buyer behavior?

No. We are aware that back office processes should align with changes in buyer behavior. Some back-office departments are aligned with changes in buyer behavior. Most back office departments are aligned with changes in buyer behavior. Our back office solves for the customer and knows their role in supporting the customer success journey.

Do finance and accounting help your customer experience?

We make it hard for people to pay us and often make them angry right at the point of sale. We tried to offer online payments but it did not go so well. Finance and accounting are separate departments that have little impact on the customer experience. Finance and accounting assist marketing and sales when asked are open to changing policies to assist in improving the customer experience. Finance and accounting are aware of their impact on the customer experience and actively seek feedback from marketing and sales on ways to improve.

Does your IT department help the customer facing teams deliver a great experience?

Who cares about customers. IT tolerates questions from the marketing and sales teams but it is usually like pulling teeth to get anything done. IT helps marketing and sales when asked but is mainly focused on internal technical issues related to managing the business. IT listens and offers tools and advice on how to build the best systems to assist the customer facing teams. IT is a partner and strategic resource for all customer facing employees and consistently offers the best solutions enabling a great customer experience.

Ecosystem

Do you have a co-marketing or partner network to help you build a community around your ideas?

We go it alone. We have a few partners that help us in certain areas. Yes, we have invested in a partner program to grow our business. We have made significant investments in a partner program to bring our message to market. Our partner program is one of the key market differentiators for our clients and incredibly important to our mission and vision.

Do you intentionally build a deep and valuable ecosystem?

We don't trust anyone. We buy stuff from other companies. We have a few partners, usually out of convenience. We have strategic partners. We develop deep partnerships with a wide variety of companies to deliver value to all of our customers.

Do you put your company at the center of an ecosystem that includes employees, stakeholders, partners, vendors, associations, customers, and competitors as a way to build a unique competitive advantage?

Nope We attend trade events and participate sometimes in industry forums. We have partners that help us strategically grow our business and add value to our customers. We share content and lead groups of companies that add to our connections and influence in our industry. We marshal our ecosystem’s resources and lead their network of connections to successfully serve our customers and by extension everyone in their networks

Your result is:

points of

Where do you rank on the Inbound Organization scale?

33 to 66: There is a lot of work to do to transition to an Inbound Organization.
67 to 115: Leadership should focus on the core areas needing improvement.
116 to 165: You are on your way to becoming an Inbound Organization.

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